Best of the Bunch: The Trials – Montenegro

Through our Best of the Bunch series, we gave a recap on the Eurovision entries from 2006 to 2015 and gave you the opportunity to choose your Best of the Bunch. As you may remember, the current Best of the Bunch winners were put into our ‘Ultimate Eurovision’ but it’s time to see which of the latest three entries have remained as your favourites! In our Best of the Bunch: The Trials series, we are going to recap the entries from a certain nation starting with 2016 and continuing through to the latest Eurovision season of 2018. Your job is to simply enjoy the music, and vote for your Best of the Bunch winner!

Today we are taking a closer look at Montenegro, a nation which made their independent debut back in 2007. As you may know, the nation once participated under the umbrella of Serbia and Montenegro, but upon their independent debuts, Serbia managed to win the contest, while Montenegro failed to qualify. They have gone down different paths at Eurovision with Montenegro often unsuccessful in their Eurovision attempts having qualified only twice in their history. Today we will be looking specifically at the latest three entries, and then it will be up to you to vote for your Best of the Bunch!

Montenegro 2016

We are starting our journey today with a very polarising entry from Montenegro. The nation used an internal selection to select their act, which was a fairly standard strategy for Montenegro. The result of that internal selection was the rock group Highway, and the song was revealed to be The Real Thing. The alternative rock entry was something a bit different for Montenegro, but among Eurovision fans it wasn’t exactly the favourite. Although it wasn’t a clear favourite, the entry did manage to achieve 13th place in the semi-final with 60 points.

Montenegro 2017

The following year, an internal selection was used once again but with a very different outcome. What’s the opposite of rock? Slavko! The eccentric performer was selected to represent Montenegro with the song Space. The big pop number delivered on the energy and the excitement, and Slavko on stage at Eurovision was everything we could have asked for and more! The song was a fan favourite at Eurovision perhaps not for the song itself, but more for the performance and it’s hard not to smile while watching! Despite that, Montenegro found themselves stuck in the semi-final once again, this time in 16th place with 56 points.

Montenegro 2018

The nation changed their approach for the 2018 contest, deciding to hold a national final to select their Eurovision act. The result of that was Vanja Radovanović with his song Inje. After two experimental years for Montenegro, the nation finally returned back to the more traditional style of the Balkan Ballad. With the only two qualifiers for Montenegro being Balkan Ballads, the pressure was on for Vanja to try and replicate that success. The fans were torn on this song, and its fate was unknown up until the results. In the end, the song finished in 16th place with 40 points.

So now you’ve seen all three performances, it’s time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!